How can you make your online dating profile stand out from the crowd? Grab the attention of your potential partner with these essential tips for creating an online dating profile.

How can you make your online dating profile stand out from the crowd? Grab the attention of your potential partner with these essential tips for creating an online dating profile.

What you include, how you say it and the photos you select are all very important when it comes to putting together an online dating profile. Spend a little time getting it right and you’ll maximise your chances of meeting other people online who are on the same wavelength.

Tips for creating an online dating profile Think carefully about your screen name. You may think that a sexual one will make you more appealing to potential partners and that it will ensure that you attract a lot of attention. It probably will but it might be the wrong kind.

Try to avoid boring clichés, like ‘I love cuddling up on the sofa with a glass of wine’ (even if that’s what you really like to do). You’ll read the same thing so many times on other people’s profiles that it just doesn’t mean anything. Try to think of something a little more unusual to make you stick in someone’s mind – and it might just spark off an online conversation.

Use specific examples to make your profile come alive and to paint a picture of what you are really like. Rather than just saying that you like reading, include the title of a book you’ve recently read and say why you enjoyed it.

Always be positive (but not arrogant or boastful) about yourself. That means avoiding writing anything too negative about your perceived faults or weaknesses, or failures in other relationships (and definitely don’t bad mouth your previous partner). If you feel under-confident about writing positive things about yourself, ask a good friend to help you.

Don’t use too many colloquialisms – remember, other expats reading your profile might not be native speakers of your language, and may not understand what you mean.

Keep it natural. Try to write as you would speak to another person, and not overly formal – this isn’t a job interview or a letter to the utilities company.

Check for spelling and grammatical errors. These are easily made but can put a lot of people off and they don’t put you in the best light. If you’re unsure, use your computer to do a spell check or ask a friend to read it through for you.

Don’t get carried away and write too much: keep it short and to the point. You don’t have to write your entire life history in your profile, just enough to sum up what you want to say and give others an idea of what you’re like. Leave it to discuss later on.

Most people look for someone with a sense of humour, so let your sense of humour shine through in your profile.

Make the effort to review and amend your profile regularly so that it’s up-to-date. People will often be browsing the same profiles and if you’ve always got something new to say, they will keep coming back to it.

Above all, be honest.

Choosing a profile photo Choose natural-looking photos taken in the last year. They should reflect your personality and be taken when you’re feeling relaxed and smiling. Ask a friend to help you choose – and to double check for odd things in the background appearing to grow out of your head.

If you’re adding more than one photo, choose others which give clues to your personality and lifestyle – sporty shots, playing an instrument, on holidays, with friends – even if they aren’t always full face shots. Use a variety of settings: if all your photos are of you in a bar, it might put some people off.

If you look great in the photos but the backgrounds are boring (or worse), think about obscuring them using the photo software on your computer.

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